NOIRELAND GUESTS

CLAIRE ALLAN

Claire Allan is an international bestselling author from Derry. A former journalist with the Derry Journal, Claire made the switch to writing full time in 2016. Her debut psychological thriller, Her Name Was Rose, hit the bestseller charts in the UK, Australia, Canada and is a USA Today bestseller.

M.J. ARLIDGE

M. J. Arlidge is a novelist, screenwriter and producer. In 2014, his debut novel Eeny Meeny was a Sunday Times Bestseller and was the bestselling crime debut of the year. It sold to over 30 countries worldwide and has been optioned for development by the BBC. Seven subsequent Helen Grace novels have followed, all of them bestsellers.

Matt Arlidge began his career in television, producing TV crime drama, particularly domestic thrillers before moving from producing to screenwriting. He writes regularly for hit BBC series Silent Witness and his first original piece for TV – Innocent – was ITV’s biggest drama of the year and starred Hermione Norris and Lee Ingleby.

BELINDA BAUER

Belinda Bauer grew up in England and South Africa and now lives in Wales. She worked as a journalist and a screenwriter before finally writing a book to appease her nagging mother. With her debut, Blacklands, Belinda was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year. She went on to win the CWA Dagger in the Library for her body of work in 2013. Her fourth novel Rubbernecker was voted 2014 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. In 2018 her eighth novel, Snap, was longlisted for the Man Booker prize. Her books have been translated into 21 languages.

HAYLEN BECK

Haylen Beck is the pen name of Stuart Neville, an internationally prize-winning crime writer from Northern Ireland. Stuart won the LA Times Book Prize for his debut novel The Twelve and received critical acclaim for his Serena Flanagan detective series set in Belfast. As Haylen Beck, he writes acclaimed US set thrillers inspired by his love of American crime writing.

GERARD BRENNAN

Gerard Brennan recently earned his PhD in Creative Writing from Queen’s University Belfast. His publishing credits include Undercover (2014), Wee Rockets (2012) and The Point (2011); winner of the Spinetingler Award for Best Novella in 2012. His latest novel Disorder was published by No Alibis Press.

DECLAN BURKE

Declan Burke is the author of three novels: Eightball Boogie (2003), The Big O (2007) and Crime Always Pays (2009). He lives in Wicklow with his wife Aileen and baby daughter Lily, and hosts a website, Crime Always Pays, which is dedicated to Irish crime fiction.

DAVID CAFFREY

David Caffrey was born in 1969 in Greystones, Co Wicklow, Ireland. He is a director and writer, and directed films such as Divorcing Jack (1998) and On the Nose (2001). Caffrey has directed some of television’s biggest crime dramas including Line of Duty, Love/Hate and the most recent series of Peaky Blinders.

ANDREA CARTER

Andrea Carter grew up in Laois and studied law at Trinity College Dublin, before moving to the Inishowen peninsula in Co. Donegal where she ran the most northerly solicitors’ practice in the country. In 2006 she returned to Dublin to work as a barrister before turning to write crime novels. She is the author of the Inishowen Mysteries, most recently The Well of Ice and Murder at Greysbridge. Her books are published by Little, Brown in the UK, Goldmann Verlag in Germany, Oceanview in the US and will shortly be adapted for television.

STEVE CAVANAGH

Steve Cavanagh was born and raised in Belfast before leaving for Dublin at the age of eighteen to study Law. He currently practices civil rights law and has been involved in several high-profile cases. He holds a certificate in Advanced Advocacy and lectures on various legal subjects. Steve won the 2018 CWA Gold Dagger award for The Liar and his latest novel Thirteen was a bestseller in Ireland and the UK.

ANN CLEEVES

Ann Cleeves is the author behind ITV’s Vera and BBC One’s Shetland. She has written over twenty-five novels and is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez – characters loved both on screen and in print. Both series are international bestsellers.

In 2006 Ann was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger (CWA Gold Dagger) for Best Crime Novel, for Raven Black, the first book in her Shetland series. In 2012 she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. Ann lives in North Tyneside

AIDAN CONWAY

Aidan Conway was born in Birmingham to Irish parents and has lived in Italy since 2001. He holds an MA in Modern Literary Studies from The Queen’s University of Belfast with a dissertation on the prose and poetry of Ciaran Carson. Aidan has been a barman, a bookseller, an EFL teacher in Sicily, and a translator and editor for the UNFAO. Currently he is an assistant lecturer at John Cabot University in Rome where he lives with his family. He is the author of two novels, A Known Evil and A Cold Flame, both of which feature Inspectors Michael Rossi and Gigi Carrara of the Rome Serious Crime Squad.

MASON CROSS

Mason Cross is a British novelist whose debut novel The Killing Season was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Book of the Year 2015. His second novel, The Samaritan, also featuring his inimitable lead character Carter Blake, was selected as a Richard & Judy Book Club pick. Mason has written a number of short stories, including A Living, which was shortlisted for the Quick Reads 'Get Britain Reading' Award and 'Expiry Date', published in Ellery Queen. He lives near Glasgow with his wife and three children.

SINEAD CROWLEY

Sinead Crowley is the Arts and Media Correspondent for RTE, Ireland’s national broadcaster, working for television, radio and online. She is also the author of the crime novels Can Anybody Help Me?, Are You Watching Me? and One Bad Turn.

WILL DEAN

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands, living in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying law at the LSE, and working many varied jobs in London, he settled in rural Sweden with his wife. He built a wooden house in a boggy forest clearing and it's from this base that he compulsively reads and writes. His debut novel Dark Pines was selected for the ITV Zoe Ball Book Club and shortlisted for the Guardian ‘Not the Booker’ prize.

ADRIAN DUNBAR

Adrian Dunbar (born 1 August 1958) is an actor and director from Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, best known for his television and theatre work. Dunbar co-wrote and starred in the 1991 film, Hear My Song, nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the BAFTA awards.

More recently, he has been better known for his role of Superintendent Ted Hastings in the BBC One thriller Line of Duty; a role he has portrayed since 2012. He has also appeared as Martin Summers in Ashes to Ashes, Richard Plantagenet in The Hollow Crown, as Father Flaherty in Broken, and Jim Hogan in Blood

NUALA ELLWOOD

Nuala Ellwood was chosen as one of the Observer's 'New Faces of Fiction 2017' for her first thriller, the bestselling My Sister's Bones. Nuala teaches Creative Writing at York St John University and lives in the city with her young son. Day of the Accident is her latest novel.

THOMAS ENGER

Thomas Enger is a former journalist. He made his debut with the crime novel Burned in 2010, which became an international sensation before publication, and marked the first in the bestselling Henning Juul series. Rights to the series have been sold to 28 countries to date. In 2013 Enger published his first book for young adults, a dark fantasy thriller called The Evil Legacy, for which he won the U-prize (best book Young Adult). Killer Instinct, upon which Inborn is based, and another Young Adult suspense novel, was published in Norway in 2017 and won the same prestigious prize. Most recently, Thomas has cowritten a thriller with Jørn Lier Horst. Enger also composes music, and he lives in Oslo.

JANE GOGAN

Jane Grogan was the Head of Drama at RTE Television for 12 years. In that time she has overseen series including the phenomenally successful Love/Hate, Charlie, Rebellion and most recently Taken Down. Gogan has worked across film and television broadcasting. She has produced drama and documentary programming, was a member of the Arts Council, Chairperson of Film Base and is a founding member of Film Makers Ireland.

ELLY GRIFFITHS

Elly Griffiths was born in London. The inspiration for her books about forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway came from her husband who gave up a city job to train as an archaeologist. She is the winner of the 2016 CWA Dagger in the Library award and two 2018 Dead Good Reader awards. Elly lives near Brighton but often spends holidays on the wild Norfolk coast.

ADAM HAMDY

Adam Hamdy is a British author and screenwriter. Pendulum, the first book in his award-nominated trilogy, was selected for Simon Mayo’s Radio 2 Book Club and was acquired by NBC Universal for development as a TV series by Tom Hardy’s production company, Hardy Son & Baker. Hamdy works as a film and TV screenwriter on both sides of the Atlantic. He is currently working on a drama biopic based on the life of Internet activist, Aaron Swartz.

KAREN HAMILTON

Karen Hamilton spent her childhood in Angola, Zimbabwe, Belgium and Italy and worked as a flight attendant for many years. Karen is a recent graduate of the Faber Academy, and having now put down roots in Hampshire to raise her young family with her husband, she satisfies her wanderlust by exploring the world through her writing. The Perfect Girlfriend is her first novel.

ELODIE HARPER

Elodie Harper is a journalist and prize-winning short story writer. Her story Wild Swimming won the Guardian-Hodder The Bazaar of Bad Dreams story competition as judged by Stephen King. She is currently a reporter and presenter at ITV News Anglia, and before that worked as a producer for Channel 4 News.

ANTHONY HOROWITZ

Horowitz is one of the country’s most successful writers, working across many media forms, including books, TV series, films, plays and journalism. He has written over 40 books including the bestselling teen spy ‘Alex Rider' series, which is estimated to have sold 19 million copies worldwide.

Horowitz is the author of the bestselling Sherlock Holmes’ novels The House of Silk and Moriarty. He was invited by the Ian Fleming Estate to write a continuation James Bond novel, Trigger Mortis, and in 2016 he became the first writer to be invited to produce a second, the number one bestseller Forever and a Day.

His standalone novel, Magpie Murders, was released inOctober 2016 to critical acclaim and 2017 saw the launch of a new series featuring Detective Daniel Hawthorne, The Word is Murder and The Sentence is Death.

Anthony is also responsible for creating and writing some of the UK’s most beloved and successful television series, including Midsomer Murders and Foyle’s War. In 2014, he was awarded an OBE for his services to literature.

DECLAN HUGHES

Declan Hughes is the author of the Ed Loy PI series: The Wrong Kind of Blood; The Colour of Blood; The Price of Blood/The Dying Breed; All The Dead Voices and City of Lost Girls. His books have been nominated for the Edgar, CWA New Blood Dagger, Shamus, Macavity and Theakston's Old Peculier awards. The Wrong Kind of Blood won the Shamus for Best First PI Novel, and, in France, the Le Point Magazine prize for best foreign crime novel. Declan is also an award-winning playwright, and the co-founder and former artistic director of Dublin's Rough Magic Theatre Company.

D.B. JOHN

D. B. JOHN was born in Wales. He began training as a lawyer but switched to a career in publishing, editing popular children's books on history and science. In 2009 he moved to Berlin, Germany, to write his first novel, Flight from Berlin. A visit to North Korea in 2012 inspired Star of the North. He lives in Angel, London.

ALEX KANE

Alex Kane is a political writer, columnist and commentator based in Belfast and a former Director of Communications for the Ulster Unionist Party. He is also a Sherlock Holmes expert and devotee.

TONY KENT

Tony Kent’s debut novel, Killer Intent, was named a ‘must read’ of 2018. It was selected for ITV’s Zoe Ball Book Club and is now to be adapted for television by Liberty Films, directed by the award-winning film maker Duncan Jones.A top-ranking barrister and former heavyweight champion boxer, Tony brings a wealth of detail and personal insight to his unputdownable thrillers. He is based in London.

OLIVIA KIERNAN

Olivia Kiernan is an Irish writer living in the UK and author of crime thriller, Too Close to Breathe. She was born and raised in County Meath, near the famed heritage town of Kells and holds an MA in Creative Writing awarded by the University of Sussex.

RENEE KNIGHT

Renée Knight worked for the BBC directing arts documentaries before beginning her writing career. She has written television and film scripts for the BBC, Channel Four and Capital Films.

Her first novel, Disclaimer, was a number one bestseller in 2015, and she is currently adapting for the screen for Fox Searchlight. Renée lives in London with her husband and two children.

CAROLINE LEA

Caroline Lea was born and raised in Jersey. She studied English Literature and Creative Writing at Warwick University and has had poetry published in Phoenix New Writing and An Aston Anthology, which she also co-edited.

DOUGLAS LINDSAY

Douglas Lindsay is the author of over twenty novels, including Ballad in Blue, A Room with No Natural Light, Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite! and Lost In Juarez, as well as the Ds Hutton, DCI Jericho, and Pereira & Bain crime series. He also wrote the Barney Thomson series, the first book of which, The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson, was released as a motion picture in 2015, starring Robert Carlyle, Emma Thompson and Ray Winstone. He lives in Somerset, England.

ASIA MACKAY

Asia grew up in London and read Anthropology at Durham University. After graduating she started work in television in Shanghai before moving back to London to work on documentaries. After starting writing whilst on maternity leave she got a place on the Faber Academy's Writing A Novel course where she began her first novel Killing It. The novel was shortlisted for Richard and Judy's Search for a Bestseller 2016. The film and TV rights were optioned by 42mp.com.

STUART MACBRIDE

Stuart MacBride is the number one Sunday Times bestselling author of the Logan McRae and Ash Henderson novels. He’s also published standalones, novellas and short stories as well as a children’s picture book.Stuart lives in the northeast of Scotland with his wife Fiona, cats Grendel, Gherkin, Onion, and Beetroot, some hens, horses, and a vast collection of assorted weeds.

BRIAN MCGILLOWAY

Brian McGilloway is the author of eight previous crime novels including the New York Times and UK No.1 bestseller Little Girl Lost. In addition to being shortlisted for a CWA Dagger and the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, he is a past recipient of the Ulster University McCrea Literary Award and won the BBC Tony Doyle Award for his screenplay, Little Emperors. He currently teaches English in Strabane, where he lives with his wife and four children.

CLAIRE MCGOWAN

Claire McGowan grew up in a small village in Northern Ireland. After a degree in English and French from Oxford University she moved to London and worked in the charity sector. She is currently the Director of the Crime Writers’ Association.

ADRIAN MCKINTY

Adrian McKinty is the award-winning author of the Sean Duffy series. He was born and grew up in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. He studied at the University of Warwick and Oxford University. In the early 90s he emigrated to New York City, working at various odd jobs with varying degrees of legality before becoming a high school English teacher in Denver, Colorado. He lived in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and kids for ten years, but moved to New York in 2018.

EOIN MCNAMEE

Eoin McNamee's novels include Resurrection Man, later made into a film, The Blue Tango, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and Orchid Blue, described by John Burnside in the Guardian as 'not only into a political novel of the highest order but also that rare phenomenon, a genuinely tragic work of art.'. He lives in Sligo.

DERVLA MCTIERNAN

Dervla McTiernan was born in County Cork, Ireland to a family of seven. She studied corporate law at the National University of Ireland, Galway and the Law Society of Ireland, and practiced as a lawyer for twelve years. Following the global financial crisis she moved with her family to Western Australia, where she now works for the Mental Health Commission. She lives in Perth with her husband and two children.

DENISE MINA

Denise Mina is a multi-award-winning Glaswegian crime writer. Her novels include The End of the Wasp Season and Gods and Beasts, both of which won the prestigious Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award in consecutive years. Denise also writes short stories and in 2006 wrote her first play. She is a regular contributor to TV and radio. Her most recent novel The Long Drop won the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and has been shortlisted for a host of other awards.

Mina's first Paddy Mehan novel, The Field of Blood, was filmed by the BBC for broadcast in 2011, and stars Jayd Johnson, Peter Capaldi and David Morrissey. The second, The Dead Hour was filmed and broadcast in 2013.

LAURA PURCELL

Laura Purcell’s bestselling first novel The Silent Companions won the WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award 2018 and featured in both the Zoe Ball and Radio 2 book clubs. Laura is a former bookseller and lives in Colchester with her husband and pet guinea pigs.

ALEX REEVE

Alex Reeve lives in Buckinghamshire and is a university lecturer, working on a PhD. The House on Half Moon Street is his debut, and the first in a series of books featuring Leo Stanhope.

W.C. RYAN

W. C. Ryan is a pseudonym for William Ryan, author of The Constant Soldier and the Korolev series of historical crime novels. Ryan left Ireland after university and practised briefly as a barrister in London. In his spare time, he wrote on an occasional basis for television and film before deciding to take writing more seriously. He completed a Masters in Creative Writing at St Andrews University in 2005. William is married and lives in West London.

JIMMY SMALLHORNE

Jimmy Smallhorne plays Gar in RTE’s Taken Down. He grew up in Ballyfermot, Dublin and emigrated to the United States in 1994, finding work as a construction labourer. While working in construction, Smallhorne helped organize the Irish Bronx Theater. He who wrote, directed and acted in his debut feature film 2by4 which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and received the Festival's Cinematography award for the camera work of Declan Quinn.

JO SPAIN

Jo Spain is the author of the Inspector Tom Reynolds series. Her first book, top ten bestseller With Our Blessing, was a finalist in the 2015 Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller. The Confession her first standalone thriller, was a number one bestseller and translated all over the world. Jo is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, a former political advisor in the Irish parliament and former vice-chair of InterTrade Ireland business body. She now writes novels and screenplays full-time. Her first co-written TV show Taken Down was broadcast in Ireland in 2018 and bought by international distributors Fremantle.

JAMES SWALLOW

James Swallow is a veteran author and scriptwriter with over 15 years of experience in fiction, television, radio, journalism, new media and videogames. He is the author of the international bestseller Nomad. He was nominated by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for his writing on the critically acclaimed Deus Ex: Human Revolution, 2013’s blockbuster videogame with over 2.18 million copies sold.

STUART TURTON

Stuart Turton is a freelance travel journalist who has previously worked in Shanghai and Dubai. TheSunday Times bestselling The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is his debut novel. Stuart is the winner of the Brighton and Hove Short Story Prize and was longlisted for the BBC Radio 4 Opening Lines competition. He lives in West London with his wife.

SARAH VAUGHAN

Sarah Vaughan is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Anatomy of a Scandal. The novel combines her experiences as a news reporter and political correspondent on the Guardian with her time as a student reading English at Brasenose College, Oxford, in the Nineties. Married with two children, she lives just outside Cambridge and is currently finishing her fourth novel.

MARTYN WAITES

Martyn Waites was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne. He trained at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama and worked as an actor for many years before becoming writer. His novels include the critically acclaimed Joe Donovan series, set in the North East of England, and The White Room, which was a Guardian ‘Book of the Year’. In 2013 he was chosen to write Angel of Death, the official sequel to Susan Hill's The Woman in Black, and in 2014 won the Grand Prix Roman Etranger for Born Under Punches. He has been nominated for every major British and French crime fiction award and has also enjoyed international commercial success with eight novels written under the name Tania Carver. His new novel is the first to feature Tom Killgannon, The Old Religion.

MATT WESOLOWSKI

Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. He is an English tutor for young people in care. Matt started his writing career in horror, and his short horror fiction has been published in numerous UK- a US-based anthologies such as Midnight Movie Creature, Selfies from the End of the World, Cold Iron and many more. His novella, The Black Land, a horror story set on the Northumberland coast, was published in 2013. Matt was a winner of the Pitch Perfect competition at Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in 2015. His debut thriller, Six Stories, was an Amazon bestseller in the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia, and a WHSmith Fresh Talent pick, and TV rights were sold to a major Hollywood studio. A prequel, Hydra, was published in 2018 and became an international bestseller.